This year’s San Francisco Rum Festival and Congress moved to a new but familiar location at Trader Vic’s Emeryville. The event was mostly held outdoors in the parking lot, aside from the rum education seminars that were held in the Lanyu room, so it had much more of a festival feel. The music from DJ Speakeasy Ray featured lounge and exotica, and had a very relaxing feel that still allowed for conversation. In addition to tables for different rum brands, there were tiki vendors and Trader Vic’s offering cocktails and food.
I was assisting the speakers and helping to manage the guest flow with the seminars, and there were several good ones include a very interesting panel about American rum producers moderated by Robyn Smith of rum et al and featuring Wright & Brown and Striped Lion Distillery. The session on Asia Pacific rums dove into production processes and included tasting samples of rums from Fiji, Philippines, and Australia.
I found plenty of time to sample some rums. My favorites included the PM/DHE High Ester rum from El Dorado, Worthy Park’s rum made with sugar cane juice, Black Tot’s Master Blender 2022 release, and a very interesting unaged rum from Wright & Brown of Oakland. It seemed like there were maybe a few less brands being represented this year but there were more than enough to provide examples of the diversity of rum for newcomers to the spirit, plus new expressions to excite veteran rum tasters.
The outdoor format and location outside San Francisco had some plusses and minuses. The weather cooperated on Saturday but we had rain earlier in the week. Transportation and parking was a challenge in Emeryville, especially for someone who likes to sober up on the way home by taking BART rather than driving. On the plus side, Trader Vic’s lounge was open for service all day and had a private party event during dinner service, so suffice to say there was a lot of energy in the venue.
